


Fifth Time's the Charm

by Musetotheworld



Series: General Danvers & Supercat Week 5 [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, newlyweds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26970577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musetotheworld/pseuds/Musetotheworld
Summary: Newly married, and the media just won't leave them alone.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant
Series: General Danvers & Supercat Week 5 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1966114
Comments: 13
Kudos: 178
Collections: General Danvers & Supercat Week 5





	Fifth Time's the Charm

Kara huffs as she tosses the newspaper away. She’d already banned magazines from the house, will she have to ban newspapers too? Is there no decency left in her profession?

“Are they still on about us?” Cat asks, walking into the room just as Kara throws the paper. “Darling, I told you it would die down eventually. They’re just stubborn about it because you won’t let me buy anyone out.”

“That would just prove their points.” They’ve had this not quite fight a few times already, and Kara tenses a little at the thought of having it again.

Perhaps noticing, Cat doesn’t say anything. Instead, she gathers up the paper, glancing at the front page before throwing it in the trash. And now Kara feels guilty, knowing how important knowing the news is to Cat. It’s been her life’s work, and Kara’s issue with the paper shouldn’t get in the way of that.

“At least we aren’t front-page news anymore. I like a good spotlight, but that was too much.”

“You’d think there were better things to report on,” Kara says sullenly, irrationally upset that her mood has been ruined so early in the day. “We got married; we didn’t stage an international coup. Why can’t they just leave us alone?”

Cat stills in front of the coffee maker, an unnatural stillness that immediately gets Kara’s attention. Cat’s never this still. She taps her fingers along her thighs, shifts and spins in place, never quite settling. For Cat to still means she’s either completely exhausted or upset by something. And Kara has no idea what that could be right now.

“Cat?”

With the single word Cat starts moving again, but Kara isn’t fooled. 

“Cat, what’s wrong?”

“Are you already tired of the spotlight?” Cat asks after a moment, still facing the coffee maker instead of Kara. “I know we talked about it, but talking and experiencing are two entirely separate things. How could you possibly be prepared for all of this?”

Ah. There it is.

Kara sees now how her words would sound, and almost smacks herself for not considering it sooner. They’d both worked through a lot of hesitations before getting to the point a proposal and marriage were even possible, and this was one of Cat’s biggest. For some reason, no matter how much Kara reassured her, Cat couldn’t quite believe Kara could handle the spotlight that comes with marrying Cat Grant.

And to be fair, it was more than Kara expected. She’d seen a lot of it during her time as Cat’s assistant, but seeing and experiencing were also two different things. And with her cape-shaped secret, the spotlight could be as dangerous as it was overwhelming. Something Cat never forgot, no matter how many plans Alex and J’onn hatched.

But it was more than that. Cat, married four times before this, was primed to believe marriage was temporary. That something would come up, something they couldn’t work through, and that would be it. Kara would get tired of her, or of some new aspect of their lives, and she would leave.

So for Kara to complain about the spotlight now sounded less like a reasonable concern and more like the first death knell of their marriage. And no matter that it’s nothing of the sort, Cat is going to believe that until Kara can convince her otherwise.

Damn those papers and their shoddy writing anyway. They caused all of this to begin with. And now Kara has to fix it.

Standing from the table, Kara crosses the room and pulls Cat into her arms. “It’s not the spotlight. I will be on a thousand front pages with you if that’s how many they want to put us on.”

“Then what?” Cat’s trying to sound nonchalant, but Kara can feel the slight trembling as she relaxes into Kara’s hold.

“They started a betting pool.” Kara can feel her anger rising again as she remembers the article, but she pushes it down to focus on Cat instead. “How long we’ll last.”

Cat stills again for a moment before pushing back far enough to look up at Kara. “They started  _ what?” _

Ah, so she’s not the only one angry about it now. That’s probably a good thing, though with Cat, you can never be sure. Still, better angry at the paper than worried Kara’s going to leave her.

“They started a betting pool. You can buy a ticket for $10 and pick a day in the next six months that you think we’ll announce a split.”

Forget angry; Cat is livid. She’s trembling again, but this time Kara knows it isn’t worry. No, this time, it’s pure rage. And whatever Cat has in mind, Kara doubts she’ll be able to talk her out of it.

“That’s the lowest, most disgusting, abhorrent use of a journalistic platform I have ever heard. If you won’t let me buy them out, I’m at least going to make sure there are several highly unemployed writers and editors by the time tomorrow’s papers go to print.”

Well, that’s a lot more contained than Kara’d thought. She’d known there’d be some kind of fallout after something like this, but she’d expected something more...complete.

Kara’s almost angry enough to go along with the plan, but not quite. She’s still a hero, after all. Always supposed to look out for people, even when she doesn’t much like them.

“What if we just force them to write a retraction?” she tries, running her hands along Cat’s arms in an attempt to calm her. “We both know no one is going to win that pool, so why give them more stories? We both know they’ll write about how much you can’t stand criticism if you take out half of their staff.”

And now they’re back to the not fight again. Kara’s seen all the terrible things people have written about Cat over the years, and she can all too easily picture the articles now. Not just crude jokes about midlife crisis and marrying a former assistant. Beyond ‘well-meaning’ articles about whether Carter will accept a step-mother so close in age. No, if Cat lashes out, those papers will take it as permission to let loose.

And Cat doesn’t deserve that. More than that, Kara refuses to be the reason for it.

Cat wants to argue, wants to make the same points she’s made every time this topic comes up. Kara can see it. But they both know how that conversation goes. It only stresses them out; it doesn’t solve anything. And right now, they don’t need that added stress.

“It had better be one hell of a retraction,” she says instead, giving in and slumping back into Kara’s arms.

“It will be. I can bring Alex with me if you’d like. She can do the ‘looming menacingly’ pose you’re so jealous of.”

That gets a laugh, and Kara breathes a sigh of relief. If Cat’s laughing, maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

“I’d rather not start that particular rumor. She’d have to go in fully armed to get a reaction out of that group, and ‘Cat Grant hires personal paramilitary force’ wouldn’t be a good headline.”

Grateful that Cat’s willing to joke, Kara presses a kiss to the top of her head. She’s not surprised when Cat immediately tips her head up for a real kiss, one Kara gladly returns. Forget the newspapers and their ridiculous articles. They’ve got all they need right here.

***

“So, we made it.”

Grumbling slightly as she turns over in bed, Kara squints over at her wife. “What did we make where?”

Cat smirks, eyes dipping to the skin revealed as Kara rolls onto her back, comforter slipping to her waist. “We hit the six-month mark without splitting. Everyone’s surprised. I’ve read ‘fifth time’s the charm’ a good half dozen times already this morning.”

Kara groans, knowing that means there’s another round of articles in their future. Things had  _ just  _ calmed down as nothing more exciting than Cat willingly allowing PDA from Kara. And now they’ll have to deal with the ridiculousness all over again.

“At least they learned some discretion after the last big mess.” Kara can still remember the look of terror on people’s faces as she and Cat both walked into the offending newspaper’s office. She’d been ashamed of how satisfied she was, knowing the writers of the story were worried. They deserved it, to be sure, but she was supposed to be better than that.

And then Cat sat down with the management. Calmly and clearly, she’d laid out exactly what her options were, and the reasons she wasn’t taking any of them. And then, she’d torn into the article. Never raising her voice, never attacking the writers, Cat had done what Kara never expected of her.

She’d explained her feelings. She’d told complete strangers how much she loved Kara. True, she’d gotten a strict promise that it was entirely off the record, backed up by the not quite threats from the beginning of their conversation. But still. Cat never opened up about her feelings. Not even Kara, sometimes. It just wasn’t something she did.

But she’d done it there. For Kara.

The result was surprising. The articles didn’t go away, of course. Not when Cat only spoke to one newspaper, not every writer of every article. But the tone shift from that single newspaper sparked a tone shift in the overall coverage. Gradually, they became more than the cliched boss/employee relationship in every story.

And then, they’d stopped being a story altogether.

Now, Kara knows that particular peace is ending. They’ve made it to six months, the long-shot goal of that stupid betting pool. And they showed no signs of growing apart, no matter what those old articles speculated. Of course people are going to write about them.

“Are they going to do this every six months, or do you think eventually it’ll settle to once a year?”

Cat laughs, setting the paper down to slide back into bed and Kara’s arms. “I’m sure they’ll settle down again soon. Hopefully, without another confrontation like last time.”

Kara shakes her head, but she’s getting distracted by the feeling of Cat’s skin against her own. “It was hardly a confrontation. You didn’t even threaten their jobs, let alone the newspaper’s existence.”

“Mm, I was tempted. But you had to be all sexy and convincing.”

A quick glance at the clock tells Kara they have plenty of time, not that it would matter if they didn’t. It wouldn’t be the first time they were late.

“I’m sure I can find a few more things you need convincing about,” she says as she rolls over, propping herself above Cat. “After all, it  _ is  _ our six-month anniversary.”

And as she lowered herself into a deep kiss, Kara proceeded to do just that.


End file.
